{"id":1715,"date":"2025-08-09T14:25:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T14:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/?p=1715"},"modified":"2025-08-15T14:01:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T14:01:47","slug":"protesters-decry-jailing-of-moldovan-opposition-politician-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/09\/protesters-decry-jailing-of-moldovan-opposition-politician-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters decry jailing of Moldovan opposition politician (VIDEOS)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A court found Gagauzia region head Evgenia Gutsul guilty of illegally funding political activities following a trial she claims was a farce<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Protesters have gathered outside of the holding facility in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau to express support for prominent opposition figure Evgenia Gutsul, who was recently handed a seven-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n<p>The head of the autonomous region of Gagauzia, who opposes pro-EU President Maia Sandu, was found guilty of illegally financing the opposition Sor party \u2013 an accusation she has dismissed as fabricated.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Dozens have turned up for the demonstration with placards in both Russian and Moldovan denouncing <em>\u201cpolitical repression\u201d<\/em> and demanded that Gutsul be set free<\/p>\n<p>In social media videos from the site, a speaker said that the very concept of democracy has become hollowed out in the EU candidate nation. He further claimed that Moldovan judges lack impartiality and are mere <em>\u201cslaves to the system.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Similar rallies were held earlier this week, with an aide to Gutsul telling RIA Novosti that protests would continue on a daily basis until the politician was released.<\/p>\n<p>Gutsul herself described the ruling against her as a <em>\u201cpolitical execution\u201d<\/em> and a blow to the <em>\u201centire democratic system of Moldova.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The jailed politician served as the head of Gagauzia, an autonomous and predominantly Russian-speaking region in the south of the former Soviet country. She had campaigned on promises of closer ties with Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>Her party, Sor, was banned in 2023 on allegations of illicit financing from abroad.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n        <span><strong>Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<figure>\n            <img src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"FILE PHOTO. Evgenia Gutsul.\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/68950c7820302751a01fab74.jpg\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/russia\/622638-un-moldova-gutsul-persecution\/\">UN urges \u2018due process\u2019 for jailed Moldovan regional leader<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Commenting on the recent developments, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the ruling represented the \u201c<em>culmination of repression by the Chisinau regime against the entire Gagauz autonomy.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov similarly lamented that the \u201c<em>rules and norms of democracy are being trampled in every possible way now<\/em>\u201d in the EU candidate country.<\/p>\n<p>Incumbent pro-EU President Maia Sandu narrowly won the vote and secured a second presidential term in the elections last November, amid claims of widespread irregularities.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, last month, the European Council blacklisted several opposition groups in Moldova, and imposed personal sanctions on seven opposition politicians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A court found Gagauzia region head Evgenia Gutsul guilty of illegally funding political activities following a trial she claims was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1715"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1718,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1715\/revisions\/1718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}